Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools

The Court reviews the history of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the law at issue in this case, and also reviews the facts of this case.

On the merits, the Court held the following.

• The IDEA's remedy exhaustion requirement does not apply when a lawsuit seeks relief unrelated to the denial of a free appropriate public education (FAPE).
• To determine if a lawsuit seeks relief for the denial of a FAPE or not, a court should examine the gravamen – equivalently, the substance – of the plaintiff's complaint.

To reach the first conclusion, the Court focused on the language of the relevant section (specifically, 20 U.S.C. §1415(l), which covers the administrative exhaustion requirement), which "requires that a plaintiff exhaust IDEA's procedures before filing an action under ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, or similar laws when (but only when) her suit 'seek[s] relief that is also available' under the IDEA". The opinion, quoting Black's Law Dictionary, noted that the "relief" for lawsuits means the "redress or benefit" that can be conferred upon a favourable judgement. Further, the opinion noted that a relief is "available" when it is "accessible or may be obtained", this time quoting Ross v. Blake. Thus, in the Court's view, analyzing when the IDEA enables a person to obtain relief is paramount to determining the scope of the exhaustion requirement. The court's opinion noted that the Congress declared the IDEA is "to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education" (quoting §1400(d)(1)(A)). Therefore, the IDEA's administrative remedies are meant to test whether a school completed their obligation to provide a child meaningful access to a free appropriate public education – in other words, "a FAPE denial is the sine qua non". If a type of accommodation will fulfill the IDEA's requirement, then the administrative officer orders such relief. However, even though another law besides the IDEA may require an accommodation on alternative grounds, the officer nonetheless cannot order such relief if it does not touch on a FAPE denial. In the Court's view, this is precisely the line that the law dictates. For example, in the case of Smith, which compelled the Congress to amend the relevant law, the petitioner would not be able to evade the exhaustion requirement by bringing a lawsuit under a different law because her lawsuit concerned the denial of a FAPE. However, if a lawsuit is brought under a different law such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act and does not concern the denial of a FAPE, then the IDEA administrative officer cannot grant the parents any relief. Therefore, the exhaustion is not required in this case. Since it is possible for a school's refusal to allow certain accommodation to injure a child in a way that is unrelated to a FAPE, in such circumstances the administrative remedy exhaustion does not apply. The Court again emphasized that "the only 'relief' the IDEA makes 'available' is relief for the denial of a FAPE".

Then the Court laid out a test that lower courts should use to decide whether a plaintiff seeks relief for the denial of a FAPE or not. Noting that the IDEA asks whether a lawsuit "seeks" relief available under the IDEA, the Court wrote that the court should look at the gravamen – or the substance – of a plaintiff's complaint. This way, the lower courts can set aside any attempts of artful pleading made to circumvent the exhaustion requirement by using certain labels. If the gravamen covers the denial of a FAPE, then the exhaustion requirement applies; otherwise, it does not. However, this is not to say that three laws in question (the IDEA, the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act) do not overlap in coverage. Yet, there are some important differences: the IDEA only covers children and adolescents and covers their schooling only; on the other hand, the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act are intended to root out any disability-based discriminations, and cover people with disabilities of all ages. After noting the key differences between the three laws, the Court laid out the three-prong test to determine whether the gravamen of a complaint concerns the denial of a FAPE rather than disability-based discrimination, in the form of questions, two of which are hypothetical in nature:

• The first prong: could the plaintiff have brought essentially the same claim if the conduct had occurred at a public facility other than a school, such as a public theatre of a public library?
• The second prong: could an adult, not a child, conceivably have brought the essentially identical lawsuit?
• The third prong: does the history of the proceedings indicate that the gravamen is related to the denial of a FAPE?

Thus, if the answer to the first two questions is yes, then it is likely that the lawsuit does not concern the denial of a FAPE. Then the Court provided a hypothetical situation where this is the case. Suppose that the family of a wheelchair-bound child sues her school for discrimination under the ADA without touching on the denial of a FAPE due to the school's lack of access ramps. One may argue that this may be related to the denial of a FAPE: after all, if a child has difficulty accessing the school building, then she cannot receive education; besides, if someone has to carry her over, then the child may not achieve independence needed for her academic success. Yet, it is possible for the child to file the essentially identical lawsuit against a public library lacking such access ramps. Furthermore, it is possible for a visitor to the school to file the essentially identical complaint against the school. Therefore, this lawsuit most likely is concerned with equality of access to facilities, which is in the domain of disability-based discrimination rather than the adequacy of the school's FAPE-related accommodations.

On the other hand, if the answer to the first two questions is no, then such lawsuit cannot avoid the exhaustion requirement. For instance, suppose that a student with a learning disability sues his school under the ADA for failing to provide additional tutoring in mathematics. This could be considered disability-based discrimination; however, such lawsuit fails under the test devised by the Court, even though the complaint does not mention the denial of a FAPE anywhere. First, it is unlikely that this student can press the identical lawsuit against a public library. Second, it is inconceivable that an adult visitor or an adult employee of the school will press such lawsuit. Hence, the substance of the student's complaint is related to the denial of a FAPE, so this student must exhaust the administrative procedures first.

The third prong touches on the history of the proceedings, which might suggest that the lawsuit is related to the denial of a FAPE. If a plaintiff formally invoked the IDEA's administrative procedures before switching the course, that can possibly suggest that the gravamen of the complaint is related to a FAPE denial. While it is possible for a plaintiff to realize in the middle of the procedure that the school completed their obligations and that their complaints are unrelated to a FAPE, such formal invocation of the IDEA procedures may serve as evidence that the gravamen of the plaintiff's claim concerns the FAPE denial.

In the last part of the opinion, the Court revisited the Frys' claims and attempted to apply the test it laid out to Frys' claims. The Court noted that the Frys' complaint only discusses disability-based discrimination, such as the school district's "refusal to allow Wonder to act as a service dog discriminated against [E.F.] as a person with disabilities ... by denying her equal access" to public facilities.[10] Not only did it not state that Wonder enhances E.F.'s educational opportunities, but the Frys agreed with the school district's assertion that E.F.'s educational needs were satisfied by a one-on-one human aide. The Frys' instead focused on the infringement of E.F.'s right to equal access, as the Office of Civil Rights found.

The Court also concluded that nothing in the Frys' suit suggests any focus on the educational needs. It noted that the Frys' claims will probably pass the first prong, as the Frys could have filed the same lawsuit if a public library refused to allow Wonder to enter the building. The claims will likely pass the second prong as well because a disabled adult could have levelled the essentially same charges if the adult's service dog was refused access to public facilities such as a school, for not adhering to the equal access requirements as codified in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Based on the information before the Court, it concludes that the Frys' claims are the type of claims that focus on disability-based discrimination rather than the denial of a free appropriate public education. However, the Court declined to undertake the analysis for the third prong, as neither parties addressed the history of the Frys' proceedings. The Court thus vacated the Sixth Circuit's judgment and remanded the case so that the Sixth Circuit can determine whether, for example, the Frys pursued the IDEA's formal procedures before filing the case. If the Frys started from that road, then the lower court should determine whether such actions reveal that the substance of the Frys' complains is related to the denial of a FAPE.

Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, joined Part I and the parts of Part II regarding the Court's first conclusion on the merits. Alito wrote that he (along with Justice Thomas) declined to join the later part of the Court's opinion where the court laid out the test for the lower courts to use when examining the gravamen of the plaintiff's complaint. Specifically, Alito wrote that the court's test would work well only if there is no overlap between the relief available under the IDEA and the relief provided by other federal laws (including the Rehabilitation Act, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the United States Constitution, inter alia), yet the court admitted that there may be instances when there is such overlap. Alito also disagreed with the third prong of the court's test, which in part stated that the lower court should examine whether (and to what extent) the parents pursued but later abandoned the IDEA's formal procedures before filing a formal lawsuit under the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act. Alito criticized the court for failing to take into other factors that may have led the plaintiff to pursue the IDEA's formal procedure first, such as being advised by their attorney to pursue the IDEA procedure before abandoning it, or the parents amending their complaints to give up parts of the relief available under the IDEA and turn to another federal statute in the course of their lawsuit. Calling them "misleading clues", Alito concluded that the test laid out by the court will invite more confusion and lead the lower courts astray.